The Erudite Girl

A Memory of Apples

Immediately the sights and sounds blurred together and overwhelmed me. I could see Joe coming over to pat me on the back and usher me into the room. Lindsey was there too along with a couple of other transfers.

"Congratulations!" she said coming over and shaking my hand. "You made it into Erudite!" I smiled and looked around the room. Relief coming through me in waves. I could see now that I was right me must be in the center of the compound because the room had no windows. All along the wall were screens and I could see the cameras were trained on the other initiates.

"You made good time too," Joe added. "You still have 30 minutes until the sun set. What did you say your name was?" I jerked my eyes away from the screens.

"Cate," I said.

"Well good job Cate," Lindsey agreed. "You're the first transfer. Only Erudite-borns have made it so far." She gestured over to the group of kids standing across the room. There were three girls and four boys. "Hey guys!" she shouted to them. "Come meet the new transfer."

Two of the girls came over. They were both wearing collared shirts and skirts. One of the girls had shoulder length brown hair tied back in a ponytail, that was falling out but she didn't seem to care. The other girl had dark skin and brown hair as well.

"Hey nice to meet you," the dark-skinned girl said, holding out her hand. "Welcome to Erudite. What's your name?" She seemed friendly enough.

"I'm Cate," I said for the second time in a row. I glanced around to see if the girl I had met before, Macey, was here, but she wasn't.

"I'm Lilac," she replied shaking my hand. "This is Ellie." The other brown-haired girl nodded. In the meantime Lindsey and Joe had gone over to where the screens were.

"How'd you do it?" Ellie asked curiously. "I just got here so I haven't had much time to watch anyone else." Briefly as possible I explained how I figured out about the paint, the water, and the code. As I talked a couple other Erudite-born kids came in to cheers and hand-shakes.

"That's neat," Lilac said when I was done. "I never would have thought of that. I just circled around the compound until I found a series of trapdoors." She launched into an explanation about how she had walked around the compound until she found a trapdoor that led to some kind of cellar. My gaze bounced restlessly across the room as a happy feeling filled my stomach. I couldn't believe I was really here.

"Okay, guys, only 15 more minutes," Lindsey announced. I swiveled my head around to look at the screens and sure enough the sun was about to set.

Only a couple minutes later, Macey stumbled into the room. She had lost her black jacket somewhere and her short hair was a mess, but she didn't seem to care. Lindsey and Joe immediately went over to see her.

"Oh good another transfer!" Ellie said, interrupting Lilac's story. "Let's go say hello." Lilac looked slightly irritated that her story had been interrupted but she came over anyway.

"You got lucky," Joe was saying when we went over. "The sun's just about to set." I could see her wince slightly at the comment but she stood her ground.

"Yeah, I had trouble getting to the room. I got lost." Joe looked like he was about to say something else but stopped when two more initiates stumbled into the room, one right after another.

"Hey," I said, sliding over to her. "I'm glad you made it." She smiled and pushed her hand through her hair, looking tired.

"Yeah, me too. That was really difficult." I nodded my head in agreement.

"It makes me wonder what is coming next." Ellie laughed at that, reminding me that she was there.

"Oh, and this is Ellie and Lilac, they're both Erudite-born," I added hurriedly. Then I remembered that we weren't in Amity anymore. Introductions probably didn't matter that much. None of them seemed to notice my embarrassment though and they greeted each other with smiles.